Chun: A Shadowy Strongman

As student turmoil grows, he imposes an army crackdown

Waves of angry students, as many as 35,000 at a time, surged through the streets of Seoul for three successive days last week. Screaming antigovernment slogans, the demonstrators rammed barricades with commandeered buses and clashed with club-swinging riot police. Clouds of tear gas hung over Chongro, one of the city's busiest commercial streets, as army troops in armored personnel carriers crept up in case they were needed to back up beleaguered police. One policeman was killed, while scores of both police and students were seriously injured. Hundreds of other protesters were arrested, many of them none too gently. The trouble subsided after student leaders agreed to suspend the demonstrations to give the government a chance to respond to their demands.

The army-backed regime responded with a vengeance. First, a squad of 300 riot police launched a surprise raid against a Seoul university campus where student organizers had been meeting to plan new tactics; 18 suspected leaders were arrested. Simultaneously, 2,000 other police surrounded the school and detained other activists as they tried to run away. Then, within hours, the army's Martial Law Command proclaimed a broad crackdown that appeared to give the military all but official control over the country's political life. All schools were ordered closed until further notice. Political gatherings were banned. According to some reports, it was feared that even further sessions of the National Assembly might be suspended.

The military authorities obviously had become alarmed, because the demonstrations were the most extensive in South Korea since the assassination of President Park Chung Hee seven months ago. The students were protesting the martial law that has been in effect ever since, and against the failure of the regime to deliver on its promises of a new constitution and a specific timetable for free popular elections. The demonstrations had followed three days of rioting among striking coal miners in the southern city of Sabuk. Now, the army's crackdown raised fresh doubts about South Korea's ability to make a successful transition to democratic rule.

The prime mover behind the military action, by all accounts, was Lieut. General Chun Du Hwan, 48, the shadowy military Lieut. General Chun strongman behind the weak caretaker Cabinet of President Choi Kyu Hah, 60. Chun, a tough career soldier who once fought alongside U.S. forces in Viet Nam, assumed effective control behind the scenes following his couplike arrest last December of the former martial law commander, General Chung Seung Hwa. Chun has insisted, "I have no political ambitions," but he added to his personal power last month by appointing himself acting chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, a key post formerly held by Kim Jae Kyu, Park's convicted assassin. In a three-hour talk with TIME Tokyo Bureau Chief Edwin M. Reingold and Correspondent S. Chang in Seoul last week, shortly before the army crackdown, Chun showed little eagerness for lifting martial law soon, and warned of a new military threat from North Korea. Excerpts from the conversation, the first he has ever held with foreign journalists:

On the present political turmoil: I feel strongly that our political trend is headed in a worrisome direction. The problems are complex: guaranteeing our national security, realizing our modernization and prosperity, and preventing any element from dividing our nation. I feel as though we are being forced to drift aimlessly, gripped by wrong ideas [such as permissiveness and lack of discipline] and totally disregarding the realities. On the question of when martial law should be lifted, I regret to say that such questions are beyond the realm of my duties.*

On the late President Park: He was a rare leader, a leader almost without parallel in our history. He opened up an era of unprecedented prosperity for us. He dedicated himself to Korea's survival and to the task of building a self-reliant nation. Where did he fail? Personally, I think there should have been an improvement in the process of electing a President. The 18-year period he spent governing the country was really long. Toward the end, I'm afraid it became somewhat difficult for the nation to grasp some of his ideas, basic aims and the spirit of what he proposed to do.

On democracy: The geopolitical situation in Korea leaves us constantly confronted with the danger of invasion. Though you do not hear any gunfire, even at this very moment we are exposed to the threat of war. We are in an extremely difficult situation: on the one hand we have to face the enemy, and on the other we have to build up our economy. We have to develop a political system compatible with our own conditions. It is imperative for us to build a democracy that will contribute to our own national development--whether it is Western-style or otherwise.

On North Korea: Indications are that the supreme power there is being shifted from President Kim Il Sung to his son Kim Chong Il. This might be made public at their Workers Party General Congress in October. On the military side, they have completed preparations to move on the South. Since February there have been large-scale military maneuvers by their army, navy and air force and preparations for mobilizing the whole nation. This continues. At the same time, North Korea regards recent developments in South Korea as a "decisive moment for [touching off] revolution." They are mounting a deceitful "peace offensive" [with repeated calls for unification] in order to divide our nation against itself. What we need now is creative nationalism. It is time for nation building. Our students' energy should be directed more creatively, more constructively.

*Technically correct; officially, it is up to the civilian government to impose or rescind martial law.

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